Kabul, 4 December 2021 (TDI): The office of the United Nations Development Programme welcomed the announcement of SIDA to contribute to “ABADEI” on 2 December. SIDA is the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and its contribution totaled 11.2 million.
According to the announcement, that contribution is for the development emergency initiative of the UN. That initiative received the name of ABADEI, and it is part of a crisis response strategy to the country’s situation.
UNDP Resident Representative in Afghanistan, Abdallah Al Dardari, thanked Sweden for its contribution. Dardari then added that Sweden’s strategic contribution will support the Afghans to face the humanitarian and socio-economic crisis.
He also mentioned that with the contribution, UNDP will be able to support the needs of vulnerable people. According to him, UNDP will also be able to inject urgent resources into local economies.
LUNDBERG’S STATEMENT
The Head of the Afghanistan Unit at SIDA, Maria Lundberg, remarked that socio-economic collapse in Afghanistan would cause human suffering. This could harm the region as it is causing a refugee exodus, and the security situation deteriorates.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
The note then mentioned that the UNDP recently released the Socio-Economic Outlook for Afghanistan, from 2021 to 2022. The outlook estimated that the nominal GDP of Afghanistan is likely to contract by 20% within a year. That meant that the nominal GDP will contract from 20 billion dollars in 2020 to 16 billion.
UNDP’s report also warns that this decline may reach 30% in the following years if corrective actions are not taken. That decline means that from 16 billion, the nominal GDP will go to 14 billion.
The report also remarked that annual per capita income also suffered a decline. According to UNDP, that decline was from 650 in 2012 to 500 in 2020, and it also expects another decline to 350 in 2022.
SIDA’s CONTRIBUTION AND ABADEI INITIATIVE
As mentioned before, the contribution of SIDA will be for the ABADEI initiative. According to the UNDP, they designed ABADEI to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe. ABADEI’s other goal is to set the foundations for long-term development interventions to support basic needs.
According to UNDP, ABADEI counts with the support of 13 UN Agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Their support is for community-level solutions to complement the current humanitarian interventions in the country.
Among the activities of ABADEI, are the cash-for-work and cash-for-business. The report also mentioned that the activities have created around 2300 jobs, to support vulnerable families in Mazar, Kunduz, Jalalabad, and Herat.
UNDP is expanding the ABADEI emergency employment schemes to Badghis, Farah, and other provinces. UNDP released an economic rapid appraisal in September. That report estimated that around 97% of the population could be at risk of sinking below the poverty line by 2022.
AL-DARDARI AND UNDP CALL TO THE DONORS
That report also warned that could be a reality unless a response to the crisis of Afghanistan is launched. Al Dardari and UNDP called on other donors to step in, to help prevent the total collapse of the Afghan local economy, and vital systems. That support would also provide further aid to basic human needs.
